Tracing the tax that's supposed to fund TSA

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  NPR.

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  This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

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  I'm Ricky Mulvey.

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  And I'm Waylon Wong.

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  Chaos continues at the airports as a significant number of TSA workers aren't showing up for work.

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  As we know, they've not been paid for more than a month now.

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  Congress is still at an impasse on funding the Department of Homeland Security,

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  and that 's left these federal workers in the lurch.

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  We've all heard this before.

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  Late last year, TSA workers also went without pay because of a government shutdown.

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  Here's what you may not know.

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  Every time you buy a ticket for a flight that leaves a U.S. Airport,

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  You pay something called a U.S. Passenger security fee, a little over $11 for round-trip tickets.

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  It's a tax that was supposed to help fund TSA salaries.

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  Travelers are still buying tickets and paying this fee.

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  The money is coming in.

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  But TSA workers aren't getting paid for now, so what gives?

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  Exactly.

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  Answer that question, politicians.

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  Answer that question.

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